Google Places/Affiliate/Partner Site
-
Hello,
We are looking at the possibility of renting or leasing a small office but we're not quite at that point yet. We would like to take add Google Places/G+ by adding an address & phone number giving us more real estate for the small Brand we are trying to build. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what we could add?
Thanks in Advance!
-
I think Miriam nailed it.
Smart advice as well using a home address is not a bad idea at all. Think of all the fantastic companies that started it either in the garage Which Google would consider their home / place of business.
If you have a legitimate local listing your all set as you grow and acquire an office or whatever type of facility it is that you need to do business in you will have no problem with Google when making the change.
Sincerely,
Thomas
-
Hi Little Bigman,
You've asked a good question. Let me refer you to Google's own guidelines regarding this scenario:
Business Location: Use a precise, accurate address to describe your business location.
- Do not create a listing or place your pin marker at a location where the business does not physically exist. P.O. Boxes are not considered accurate physical locations.Your business location should be staffed during its stated hours.
- Exceptions to the above are self-serve businesses such as ATMs or video-rental kiosks. If adding these locations, you should include contact information for customers to get help.
- If you need to specify a mail box or suite number within your physical location, please list your physical address in Address Line 1, and put your mail box or suite number in Address Line 2.
- Use the precise address for the business in place of broad city names or cross-streets.
- Do not create more than one listing for each business location, either in a single account or multiple accounts.
- Individual practitioners may be listed individually as long as those practitioners are public-facing within their parent organization. Common examples of such practitioners are doctors, dentists, lawyers, and real estate agents. The practitioner should be directly contactable at the verified location during stated hours. A practitioner should not have multiple listings to cover all of his or her specializations.
- Departments within businesses, universities, hospitals, and government buildings may be listed separately. These departments must be publicly distinct as entities or groups within their parent organization, and ideally will have separate phone numbers and/or customer entrances.
- Businesses that operate in a service area should create one listing for the central office or location and designate service areas. If you wish to display your complete business address while setting your service area(s), your business location should be staffed and able to receive customers during its stated hours. Google will determine how best to display your business address based on your inputs as well as inputs from other sources. Learn how to add service areas to your listing.
- If you don't conduct face-to-face business at your location, you must select "Yes, this business serves customers at their locations" under the "Service Areas and Location Settings" section of your dashboard, and then select the "Do not show my business address on my Maps listing" option.
- Do not include information in address lines that does not pertain to your business’s physical location (e.g. URLs, keywords).
- Anytime the address for your business changes, you’ll have to verify again. You also won’t be able to update the business’s name until the verification process is complete.
So, basically, it's fine if you rent a small office, so long as it is staffed and accepts walk-in traffic during your listed business hours. Any other arrangement (with the exception of ATM machines!) is not allowed. Using virtual offices or P.O. boxes is strictly forbidden. Better to use your home address if you're just starting out and then go through the procedures for trying to have the address not displayed, if you have privacy concerns. Fortunately, this is one area in which Google's guidelines, above, are totally clear. Hope it helps to read them. You can access the complete guidelines here: https://support.google.com/places/answer/107528?hl=en
- Do not create a listing or place your pin marker at a location where the business does not physically exist. P.O. Boxes are not considered accurate physical locations.Your business location should be staffed during its stated hours.
-
Google has access to property records they can figure things out pretty quickly I would not try to trick them.
According to Google you have to do face-to-face business at your Google local place of business.
No one has ever accused Google of being a stupid company and I would suggest following their guidelines. Which state that you cannot use a PO box for Google local
https://support.google.com/places/answer/107528?hl=en
how to create a listing and remember they will send you a postcard most likely.
https://support.google.com/places/answer/142906
If you are on the up and up and you want to start off right with Google local wait until you have legitimate place of business there.
Think about damage could be done if you are caught doing the wrong thing. I would wait until you meet the guidelines and then sign up for Moz local after creating a G plus local page
Sincerely,
Thomas
-
We Do currently have a PO Box but Im not sure it will work? If we do eventually rent a space how hard is it to change?
-
If you decide to go down the route of creating a fictitious address, you may find hard to get a real one approved if you get caught out. They are getting stricter. In the past you could use a mailbox if you didnt have a real place
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Google My Business right had side block disapeared for a brand search
Hi Just redeveloped my site and went live end of April Since then whenever i do a branded search the GMB 'pack' has always shown on the right hand side whenever i do a branded search but it has disapeared as of the last couple of days. Any ideas why this can happen ? and is it anything to worry about or just a google 'glitch' that should right itself soon? If not any ideas how to fix ? (accounts and website all properly linked) etc When i go to GMB dashboard and click 'View on Search' it does show up as it should, but not when i go to do a google search for the brand name !? All Best Dan
Reviews and Ratings | | Dan-Lawrence1 -
Experience Getting Google Reviews Restored?
Does anyone have any experience or know anyone with experience getting google reviews restored? We have no technical issues with our Google business pages/locations, but for some reason, they deleted some of our recent reviews. These reviews were not at our location or review station or anything like that. A couple of the profiles were very new accounts, and a couple of the users posted reviews for a few locations, however, they were legitimate reviews that they did on their own. I was hoping someone had an idea of what to do to appeal to Google or if there was a form to fill out to get our reviews restored. Thanks, Ruben
Reviews and Ratings | | KempRugeLawGroup1 -
What is the best online reputation management software for generating legitimate Google (and other online) reviews?
Hello! Does anyone have a good experience with using an online reputation management tool to help generate online reviews for a Google My Business listing, Facebook, etc? The reason I ask about a review software is because of my client's age demographic (50+), so we need to have an automated system to request reviews from their clients and to make it simple for them to leave reviews.
Reviews and Ratings | | eport122 -
What do the symbols in the profile avatars in Google listing reviews mean?
A client of mine noticed that some of their customers that leave GMB listing reviews have special symbols in their profile avatars (please look at the attachment). Is this a sign of a influencer? Has anybody else noticed this? r6mhX
Reviews and Ratings | | BigChad20 -
Snap Pack & Yelp/Angie's list Page authority
Hey gang, First off thank you for any advice. I know we are all busy trying to make our money so I really appreciate everyone who chimes in. Links to studies and articles are also much appreciated. So. I am by no mean an SEO expert, I prefer to dabble in outreach and authentic link building campaigns. So you can imagine my frustration when I pull off a successful campaign, get about 4 or 5 great real links, raise in organic, but don't budge on the maps. I have noticed something. 1. My competition's yelp page has a couple more reviews than me (btw it's a locksmith site, I know it's a rather spammy industry, I don't do black hat...) BUT their yelp Page Authority is like 46! Same thing with their angies list, BBB, etc etc. MINE IS 1 across the board. Now I know the internet is changing. There is usually no reason for a locksmith site to have a viral blog. Google is looking toward more Citation based authority for local ranking factors. (Or at least that's what they say, I feel like their algorithm is not yet advanced enough to catch all the spammers.) So I am going to have an ethics meeting with my company and make sure we are alwyas treating our customers fabulously as well as sometimes intentionally asking for a review, not just on google, but across all of our web 2.0 platforms. BUT How do I get MY page authority on these directories higher? By back linking to them? DO you guys think these companies actually had campaigns to get links to these directories? Did they just PBN em'? Am I stuck in 2013!? Much love guys.
Reviews and Ratings | | Meier0 -
Why does Google return 1 star reviews in local listings as the "most helpful"?
I have a client who has recently received two 1 star reviews on Google local (unhappy customer and unhappy customers boyfriend). This is affecting an otherwise flourishing business as these two 1 star reviews are displayed prominently when you search for the brand in Google. They have since received more positive reviews, however Google insists on displaying, what they term, the "most helpful" reviews first. Why are these 1 star reviews deemed "most helpful"? In all honesty, they aren't even really that helpful, with the latter verging on slanderous. We are in the process of reporting this one as it personally attacks a member of staff, however, whilst we tentatively wait weeks for a response, I wondered if anyone has any idea on how G decides which reviews are "most helpful"? When there is no option for other users to rate these reviews as helpful (such as on play store).
Reviews and Ratings | | Silkstream0 -
Not able to see star ratings Rich Snippet in Google SERP with use of keyword search
Hello, I am webmaster of http://www.bannerbuzz.com and i have applied google rich snippet http://schema.org/aggregateRating for review star ratings in google SERP. I have checked my link in rich snippet tool, i have attached screenshot, you can see it in screenshot no 1 So according to this result i have implemented code properly. When i have checked site:www.bannerbuzz.com in google, then i can see star rating in some of my website's categories, but when i check some of those keywords in google SERP, then i can not see star rating in those keywords.i have attached screenshot below. with search terms : site:www.bannerbuzz.com you can see it in screenshot no 2 with search terms : vinyl banners you can see it in screenshot no 3 So anyone check the same things and let us know the solution if it possible to see star ratings in specific keywords. Thanks eqdGY3g.png?1 1HD61KN.png NRlmv6D.png
Reviews and Ratings | | CommercePundit0 -
Migrating Reviews from Old SIte
We recently changed our Website to Word Press and I would like to move the old reviews to the new site. I am concerned Google might not understand the reviews showing up all of a sudden. The old reviews were on a sub-domain (store.domain.com). I will be able to match the dates and text as well as names. Any advice or Best Practice on this? Thanks!
Reviews and Ratings | | Chris6610